Former Xbox Live Director Joins Black Tusk Studios

Rod Fergusson’s team over at Black Tusk Studios got yet another addition recently. Stephen Toulouse, an 18 year veteran at Microsoft before his departure in 2012 is now working on Black Tusk’s upcoming Gears of War as director of community engagement.

The news was announced on yesterday’s Major Nelson podcast. Toulouse has previously worked as the Xbox Live director of {olicy and Enforcement, setting the tone for the gaming division’s community standards.

After a policy change in 2010, thanks to Toulouse gamers could express their sexual orientation in their XBL Gamertags to prevent unwarranted harassment.

This isn’t Toulouse’s first major job since leaving Microsoft. He served as director of product management for Gaems (portable gaming entertainment cases) and has been with HBO as an infrastructure project manager.

Stephen has a reputation of being honest and straightforward and I’m pretty sure many Gears of War fans will appreciate those qualities since he will be the major source of news regarding the upcoming game.

The upcoming Gears of War will be Black Tusk Studio’s first development. The studio was originally known as Microsoft Vancouver before the name change in 2012 and ex-2K employee Rod Fergusson was added to the team to oversee development of the game due to his experience on the first three Gears of War games.